Hot 🔥 and Not ❄️

Real Writing on Racing 💯

It’s officially summertime when the stalwart, late spring meetings in Louisville and Elmont are wrapping up and the SoCal scene briefly visits Orange County on its way further south to Del Mar. With Stephen Foster day completed, the Kentucky circuit will be heading west to steamy Ellis Park next week after the holiday card Monday and the New Yorkers have one last turf festival weekend before the northward trek to the Spa commences. In honor of the racing action also heating up with premier meets about to kickoff, we are giving a quick 4th of July ‘Who’s Hot/Who’s Not’ status report! 💥🇺🇸

🔥 Girvin - the Florida based stallion standing at Ocala Stud (2022 fee was $6000) is off to a hot start at stud with Damon’s Mound becoming the 5th winner of the freshman crop, destroying a maiden special weight field at Churchill Saturday by 14 lengths for trainer Michele Lovell, earning an excellent 84 Beyer. With his Devious Dame already a stakes winner and Rol Again Dancer also winning at Monmouth this past Saturday, the son of Tale of Ekati’s career at stud is off to a blazing start.

❄️ Field size/graded stakes competition - this past weekend at Churchill/Belmont/Gulfstream, we saw the graded stakes winners pay 4.80, 5.00, 2.40, 3.20, 2.80 and 3.80. Churchill had a couple lucrative overnight/listed stakes with a few graded stakes quality horses and the winners in those paid 2.60, 5.40 and 3.80. The Suburban to be run next Saturday at Belmont has 16 nominations, 9 are trained by Todd Pletcher, 2 are trained by Uriah St. Lewis and several nominated ran this past weekend. The Grand Courtier a 150k grass stakes with 21 nominations didn’t fill for today and is being run Friday with 5. The Diana at Saratoga has 14 nominations, 10 trained by Chad Brown. The Los Al Derby has 10 nominations, possibly 6 now trained by a resurgent Bob Baffert. There is no magic potion that can be poured over the stakes schedule to “fix” this but ignoring the issue and pretending that showcasing ‘stars’ thrashing overmatched pseudo-stakes foes will remain palatable is myopic thinking at its finest.

🔥 Upstart’s stallion career - on Saturday afternoon Monmouth Park ran two stakes, the Boiling Springs and the Regret. Upstart sired both winners. His third crop hits the track this year and already with top class runners such as grade 1 winners Zandon and Kathleen O plus grade 1 placed Reinvestment Risk, Upstart is trending upward.

❄️ Texas Racing - while understanding HISA has been rolled out in about the least effective manner possible, the willingness of the Texas Racing Commission to isolate its racing product and disregard the vast majority of its potential revenue via simulcast handle is an untenable long term position. HISA is a mess, that is barely even debatable, however like other governmental predicaments, it’s here and it has to be dealt with if you wish to be involved with racing beyond the bush leagues. If the members of the Texas Racing Commission are willing to drive their ship into an iceberg, at least be willing to offer the lifeboat of legalizing in-state ADW’s. It’s almost assuredly not enough to stem the tide of zero incoming, out of state handle but at least they would give their citizens a basic racing tool that they are currently being denied.

🔥 Olympiad - the four year old Speightstown colt ran his 2022 record to 5 for 5 with his 4th straight graded stakes win, besting a solid group in the grade II Stephen Foster at Churchill, earning a 111 Beyer for his effort. The Whitney and a showdown with the winner of Saturdays John Nerud, Life is Good (ran 112 Beyer) in the Whitney on August 6 looms.

❄️ Mo Donegal - about the only negative news surrounding Team Todd these days was the report that the Belmont Stakes winner would be sidelined with bone bruising. It’s not the end of the world but he would have been a big player in the 10 furlong Travers.

🔥 Trainer Mike McCarthy - Won with three of his six starters this weekend: a tough allowance score at Churchill at 27-1, a 2 year old maiden special weight at Los Al a Forster who is a son of Tu Brutus (CHI) and the Princess Rooney (Gr II) at Gulfstream with last years champion filly Sprinter Ce Ce. His name is rarely mentioned when talking about the top trainers but in his 8 years of training (he has some earlier training stats but they were when he was deputizing for when his old boss, Todd Pletcher was suspended) McCarthy has already captured 36 graded stakes with 12 of them grade 1’s (9 different grade I winners). He has won the Preakness, the Breeders Cup Mile, the Breeders Cup Filly Sprint and the Pegasus World Cup and none of them were the post time favorite. His work with Ce Ce, City of Lights and Smooth Like Straight has been exemplary as those three have virtually never run anything but their race ‘A’ races their entire careers (45 for 52 on the board lifetime). McCarthy doesn’t have the huge numbers that most other top trainers have but the good ones that he does get are managed perfectly, he should be getting more chances with those types.

🙏🏻 🙏🏻🙏🏻 Prayers for recovery go out to Cindy Hutter, trainer George Weavers wife, who was seriously injured in a training accident on Sunday morning at the Oklahoma training track in Saratoga. Also for longtime top Ocala horsemen Rudy Delguidice who was badly hurt when a horse flipped over on top of him and Australian apprentice jockey Leah Kilner who is in critical condition after a racing accident suffered Friday. Riding racehorses in any capacity is a very dangerous profession and it’s easy to forget that as so many make it look easy.